Quality of healthcare in the EU

Subject: Quality of healthcare in the EU

Each EU Member State has to provide equal access to quality healthcare for every European citizen. Unfortunately, in the individual Member States the reality is rather different and there are severe differences in the quality of medical care. Inequalities in access to healthcare arise most often from the differing quality of medical services – diagnostics, medicines, medical equipment and hospital infrastructure.

1) Does the European Commission have a means of establishing differences in the quality of healthcare in the EU?

2) What measures can the Commission propose for countries with inferior quality healthcare, to help them catch up with Member States with high standards in health services?

Answer given by Mr Andriukaitis on behalf of the European Commission (30 October 2018)

In accordance with EU treaties, the provision of healthcare is the responsibility of Member States, while the Commission provides policy guidance and support to Member States. Access to timely, high-quality and affordable healthcare is one of the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights (1), and has been fully integrated into the European Semester process. The European Semester is the Commission’s tool to analyse the economic and social developments in the Member States, monitor relevant reforms and propose every year country-specific recommendations. In 2018, twelve Member States have received a country specific recommendation regarding their healthcare system.

Knowledge-building, including in health, is a Commission priority. The Joint Assessment Framework (JAF) for Health includes a set of indicators agreed with Member States in the context of the Social Protection Committe e (2) covering the four dimensions: health outcomes, access, quality and non-health determinants. The reading of these indicators is meant to provide a first-step quantitative screening to detect possible major challenges in each Member State's health systems in the context of the Social Open Method of Coordination. Complementarily, the ‘State of Health in the EU’ cycle produced country profiles for all Member States in 2017 (3). The Commission is also co-funding the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Patient-Reported Indicators Survey which will fill the knowledge gap on quality of healthcare from the patients’ perspective (4). On demand of Member States, the Commission’s Structural Reform Support Service provides technical support to raise quality of healthcare.

⋅1∙ https://ec.europa.eu/commission/priorities/deeper-and-fairer-economic-and-monetary-union/european-pillar-social-rights_en

⋅2∙ http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=758

⋅3∙ https://ec.europa.eu/health/state/country_profiles_en

⋅4∙ http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/funding/